Chilly Weather
by kisaru
Summary: [Sasuke n' Naruto] "Hinata came to me a while ago telling me you were standing in front of Naruto's house like some sort of stalker. Naturally, I arrived to confirm. And you?"


Title: Chilly Weather  
Summary: It's very cold this fall, and Naruto seems quieter than usual.  
Pairings: Sasuke Naruto  
Warnings: Lameness. But that's OK.  
  
I'm tired of writing stuff that makes sense, aren't you?   
  
  
  
"It's fall, Naruto. You should let your sleeves down," Sakura chided gently as her teammate desperately held his bare chilled hands underneath his armpits in an attempt to warm himself up, freezing into a mess of chattering teeth, and near visible breath.   
  
Naruto looked up at Sakura, confused for a moment, and then smiled sheepishly at her, light red tinting his soft whiskered cheeks. "That's a good idea, Sakura-chan..." he said wobbly, carefully removing each tiny hand from underneath his armpits, gasping as the cold air swept about his hands suddenly. The blond rolled down each of his stiff orange sleeves with much struggle-- as though he were afraid his hands would fly out of control at any moment. Unfortunately, the old sleeves were too short to cover his two hands. "It's so cold, isn't it, Sakura-chan?" he asked, snapping his hands under his armpits once again.   
  
Sakura sighed. "Yeah... It's been much colder than usual..." she leaned her elbows on the railing of the bridge-- the bridge at which team 7 always met. "Ne-- Sasuke-kun..." she said shyly, her green eyes shifting to regard the quiet boy standing a bit further off from the other two genin. "What do you think?"   
  
"Hn. Whatever," was Sasuke's curt answer.   
  
Sakura struggled to hold in a squeal. Such a romantic guy that Sasuke was!   
  
"Yo!" came the daily greeting. All three genin turned their heads.   
  
The familiar lazy-eyed jounin held a solitary hand in the air, a dark wool scarf wrapped around his neck. He didn't even bother to prepare himself for the inevitable scolding.   
  
"You're late!!"   
  
"Sorry! A black cat crossed my path and--"   
  
"Liar!!"   
  
It was a perfectly normal day for team 7-- had it not been for one certain substantial flaw.   
  
Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura all noticed it instantly; when scolding their perverted teacher for his appalling punctuality, Sakura's voice outshone Naruto's voice by an interval of mere decibels. Naruto was supposed to be the loudest loudmouth of them all at anything in everything involving screaming. The quietness of their comrade, a difference that would leave anyone else relieved for their ears, was unsettling for the rest of team 7.   
  
Naruto was upset over something.   
  
So Kakashi progressed to explain to the team their mission for the day: Locate the wallet of a certain Obuna Wakagawa on the outskirts of Konohagakure (which was nothing but forest). The four of them then split up, and they simply strolled casually around the forest until Sasuke finally found the poor cloth wallet left dry in a hole next to a particularly large tree several hours later.   
  
"Two of the bills were damaged-- the wallet itself was intact," Kakashi drawled before the fifth Hokage. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stood rigid next to their teacher, waiting for the mission report to be over. "The name Obuna Wakagawa was found written in felt pen on the inside of the wallet. We have reason to believe an animal had been chewing on the bills."   
  
"Thank you, Kakashi," Tsunade replied when the report was over. "Well, team 7 has no other missions today or tomorrow, so you're all free this weekend."   
  
The second sign of Naruto's deteriorating guise was his reaction to the announcement of a free weekend. A free weekend for Naruto meant a significant opportunity to train his ass off and surpass that bastard Uchiha Sasuke (no matter how much Naruto would tell them he was already much stronger than the prick). Naruto would be ecstatic to hear such news. But this Naruto almost seemed disappointed by the fact that he wouldn't have anything to do tomorrow. His eyes clouded over so that they were unreadable, his head drooped down slightly, his brow furrowed until one could insert a piece of paper and keep it still between his eyes.   
  
"Well, I'll be going now," Kakashi slowly said, spinning on heel and ambling out of the hokage's office. The room was totally silent as each clap of those sandals hitting the cold wooden floor echoed against the walls and sent freezing vibrations through everyone in the room. And they could hear Kakashi's steps long after he had left their sight.   
  
A moment after the footsteps faded, Naruto laughed nervously, running a hand through his hair and scratching the back of his head, and said in the voice of a dormouse, "I guess I'd better go, too." And out the room he went.   
  
Normally, Sakura would be exultant by the prospect of being left alone with Sasuke. But it was here that Sasuke and Sakura could only stare, dumbstruck, at the open door through which their comrade had just stumbled.   
  
"Sakura..." Sasuke muttered quietly. "That..."   
  
Sakura jerked her head to a nod. She swallowed. "...Something's wrong with Naruto..."   
  
  
  
Sakura may have passed it off as hormonal depression, but seeing the number one loudmouth ninja with eyes choked dry without the ability to cry troubled Sasuke tremendously. It troubled the stoic boy so much so that he could not enjoy his dinner, enjoy his time at home alone, or even enjoy caring for his favorite tomato plants.   
  
Stupid Naruto, he thought. Trying to hide the fact that he was unhappy over something. That total moron had no idea how to hide his emotions at all. Didn't he know that if something was bothering him, he should just say it?!   
  
Angrily, Sasuke lifted the steaming metal spoon from the pot of chops and shoved it into his mouth, completely ignoring the burning sensation that made him tear up in pain.   
  
Then again, he thought sadly, maybe Naruto just didn't want to trouble anyone. But why was that idiot so bad at acting?! Did he think that no one around him noticed?! That dead-last probably thought everyone was too preoccupied with themselves to care about him... But Naruto was wrong about that. Many people cared about him. Well, maybe not _too many_, but...   
  
But maybe Sasuke cared _a little_ about Naruto.   
  
And with this, the stoic boy got up and decided he was going to pay the blond a visit. Enough was enough.   
  
He packed up some of his onigiri in a green lunchbox (from way back when little Sasuke was still in the academy), wrapped it in a cloth (from way back when little Sasuke only used a little blanket), and slung the package over his left shoulder.   
  
Taking in a deep breath, Sasuke put on a pair of stern eyes and a frowning mouth, and he stomped out the front door of his home towards the direction of the blond's house. He growled as he realized the full intensity of the cold night air, but trudged onward. When he reached the front door of his most trusted comrade, he took in another deep breath and cautiously extended his arm to knock on the block of dried wood.   
  
One knock.   
  
Two knock.   
  
Three knock.   
  
Four.   
  
Sasuke waited unmoving outside of Naruto's house in the near freezing cold for two. hours.   
  
It was only luck that he was interrupted before he spent the entire night waiting. "Uchiha? What are you doing in front of Naruto's house?"   
  
Sasuke gnashed his teeth together, struggling to remain solid and cool despite his ears and nose frozen red and his lips chapped purple. "Hyuuga," he replied icily. "I could ask you the same."   
  
"...Hinata came to me a while ago telling me you were standing in front of Naruto's house like some sort of stalker. Naturally, I arrived to confirm. And you?"   
  
Sasuke's fists tightened. "None of your business."   
  
Neji shrugged. He turned to face the house. "Well, if you haven't noticed already, Naruto's not at home."   
  
Sasuke was silent.   
  
"He never sleeps at home on this day."   
  
"Why?" the Uchiha asked.   
  
Neji looked at the Uchiha for a moment with mirror-like white eyes, as though pondering what he should tell him. His mouth opened, he looked away, and he said in a very quiet voice, "I don't know."   
  
Before Sasuke could answer, Neji walked away, silence settling over the area like a returning fog after a rainstorm.   
  
Slow as the broken neck of a crane, Sasuke lowered his box of onigiri to the ground, a final _plop_ as it hit the dust of Naruto's first step. The dark-haired boy looked on at the closed door in front of him. What could it be that made Naruto so disconsolate?   
  
He reached out his left hand and brushed his fingers on the rusted doorknob, twisted it, heard the click, and pushed the creaking door open with ease. _Does he ever lock his door?_ He walked through the door, noticing the chip marks and bent shape of the lock. _No. The lock is broken. Like someone forced it open._ Stepping further inside, Sasuke closed the door gently behind him, feeling the wall beside him until his fingers found the light switch.   
  
_Click._   
  
The floor wasn't visible; there were ramen cups as far as the eye could see. This room had only a polished pine table in the middle of the sea of ramen. And Sasuke walked further inside Naruto's house, into his kitchen, and saw some ripped up magazines on a dinette along with a water boiler.   
  
He left the kitchen and went into Naruto's bedroom, the bed unmade and a pinup calendar hanging on the wall adjacent.   
  
Something was written in thick red marker on tomorrow's date.   
  
Sasuke all but ran out of that house with his hands flailing in the air.   
  
  
  
_"It's this day that I'm always all alone. I wonder if anyone would mind if I just disappeared on this day."_   
  
  
  
It was the next morning, and Naruto was back sleeping soundly in his bed. His bucktoothed nightcap enveloped his head and allowed stray blond locks to fray out from the white wool edges. "Mmn..." he groaned, lifting the bottom of his shirt to scratch at the invisible red markings on his stomach. A miserable yawn escaped his tired lips. He rubbed tiredly at his eyes and nearly threw himself out of bed at onto the floor.   
  
"Good morning..." he mumbled gloomily. "Today's the big day..." he said, his voice even murkier.   
  
Cracking the cricks in his neck, stretching his fingers and his arms towards the sky, Naruto stood up. He held his hips as he leaned back and felt his stomach stretch. He held his toes as he bent over and touched them. Squinting towards the morning sun, he looked over at this calendar and frowned at the date.   
  
Naruto curled his toes and threw on some clothes. He brushed his teeth and combed his hair. He opened a sealed package of ramen and poured in some boiled water. He waited three minutes. He wolfed it down within thirty seconds. He zipped up his orange jumper, threw the cup ramen to the side, and walked out the door into the brisk morning air, suddenly becoming aware of how cold it really was this autumn. He was wondering how on earth he was going to survive this winter--   
  
--when out of the blue, Naruto noticed a light orange box with a blue bow sitting on his doorstep.   
  
Naruto looked from side to side, warily picking up the box. Did someone trap it? Was there a bomb inside? Was he going to get pied? Pointing the box away from him, Naruto pulled the bow apart and lifted the lid. When nothing happened, he looked inside.   
  
A pair of new gloves.   
  
Beside them, there was a note written in the smoothest handwriting Naruto had ever seen.   
  
_Happy Birthday, Naruto._   
  
  
  
10/10-- happy birthday, dearest Naruto! You will always be the one who beat the crap out of me and changed my life... 


End file.
